Sprayed half the orchards today with a blend of fermented herb teas and sea products (kelp and fish). What a smell! Enough to scare away the meanest bugs. In the middle of the day we had a flash rain storm. It was windy enough that the rain gauge was probably inaccurate but I’d guess we got about 1/3” in about 5 minutes. We can use it.

Beebalm, aka Wild Bergamot or Oswego Tea, (Monarda fistulosa) is now coming into bloom. I saw the first few today in the Finley Lane Orchard. Within a few days there will be thousands of flowering stems. It has become one of the most common plants in the Finley Lane orchard. It even competes easily with Bedstraw (Galium aparine) which is the dominant plant in the orchard and one I often wish would go away. Monarda, on the other hand, cohabitates the orchards quite well with the trees and all the other herbaceous plants. The pollinators love it, and I do too.